Archive for the ‘Copyright’ Category

Here’s a paper I wrote for my IT Law course. Hopefully you find it useful. It deals with DRM and the impact it’s had on consumers and businesses in recent years, particularly the digital revolution.

Abstract:

Recent years have sparked worldwide debate on technologies making copyrighted material freely distributable between users of certain networks, and circumventing copyright protection technologies in almost all consumer devices and applications. The government has stepped in to attempt protecting the companies who own copyrighted material at the expense of innocent consumers, whose rights have become limited because of the new regulations proposed or passed by governments and businesses alike. One major technology backed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is Digital Rights Management. This paper will present the ethical, moral, and financial issues that this technology has had on consumers and businesses alike.

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Yesterday the Criminal Court of Pamplona, Spain concluded that a man who downloaded over 3300 movies and undetermined amount of music did not break the law while doing it.

Although the judge acknowledged that the files were downloaded/shared, the defendant said it was for “private use or sharing with other Internet users” and since there was no financial gain, no crime has been committed.

The US movie industry, of course, is not happy (can’t remember the last time they were), and blamed the Spanish government for spreading a “misconception” that peer-to-peer file sharing is legal. Of course, there’s no misconception at all since the law clearly states that if there’s no financial gain, it’s not a crime.

Hats off to the Spanish for topping the list of copyright “infringements” with close to 25 million recorded cases.

A new report by the RAND Corporation has found out a shocking “fact”: Film piracy is an enterprise of organized crime and terrorism. Yes that’s right, you just supported terrorism by buying that pirated movie from the guy on the corner. The report claims that organized crime has its finger in all stages of the process of pirating movies, from  manufacturing to street sales. ”If you buy pirated DVDs, there is a good chance that at least part of the money will go to organized crime and those proceeds fund more-dangerous criminal activities, possibly terrorism.”

Here are a few friendly tips the report so kindly suggests:

* Piracy should be made a priority offense within anti-gang strategies. (i.e. If you buy a pirated movie, you are part of a gang/are a terrorist)
* Laws should be enacted to grant investigators greater authority to sustain investigations, conduct surveillance, and obtain search warrants. (i.e. if you buy said movie, you forfeit your privacy and rights)
* Key piracy cases should be fought in the organized-crime or money-laundering divisions of prosecutors’ offices. (i.e. you are part of the mafia)
* Governments should share intelligence with industry-led anti-piracy efforts. (i.e. the MPAA should know everything about you)

That may seem like a load of horses@#t, but that’s because it is. If you look at the report, you will see  on the preface ‘The study was made possible by a grant from the Motion Picture Association (MPA).’

Now ain’t that a surprise? Click here to read TorrentFreak’s take on this

It’s funny how hippocrates operate. Actually sad. French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s political party has been going around the EU trying to enforce the “3 strikes” policy for filesharing and copyright infringement. Little do we know that his party used a song by American Indie band MGMT without paying the licensing fees. Needless to say, the band found out and was less than pleased. It actually threatened to sue the President’s party. But wait, it gets better — the party decided to make things right and offer €1, that’s right – 1 Euro, to the band for compensation. Can you believe it? I wish all those teenagers that got sued by the RIAA could do that. 

Not only did the band turn the offer down, but it rightfully called it an insult. And that’s just a week before the party is to present a new policy for online piracy that will have very strict penalties.

Good job, frenchies!

More at CBC’s site. Oh and in case you wanted to check out the now-infamous song, here it is: